Sep 1 1952

From The Space Library

Third International Congress on Astronautics adopted a constitution for the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), at Stuttgart, Germany. Speaking at the conference Walter Dornberger reveals that the German rocket team had launched 4320 rockets during the war. Wernher von Braun is awarded the Hermann Oberth medal but is unable to attend. Federal Minister of Transport, Dr. Ing. Seebohm opened the congress. 300 delegates from 16 companies and 12 countries took part. Twenty-one scientific lectures were given, ten were by German speakers. The papers were subsequently published in an anthology Probleme aus der Astronautischen Grundlagenforschung (Problems of Basic Astronautical Research). The congress exhibition included a full size A4 rocket and was visited by 16,000 people.